I planted a Santa rosa plum some years back here in western Mass. Description says self-fertile. Tree is looking great, covered in blossom, plenty of bees and no fruit set at all. Weather was not too bad either. What is the problem?
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It might be somewhat self-fertile in optimal conditions in California, but in my orchard it was more like infertile even if surrounded by good pollinators. I would graft a pollinator on to it. My own tree had such light fruit set in spite of good pollinators that I topworked it after 15 years of trying to get a semi-decent crop. Now I have Weeping Santa Rosa on the old SR tree, that one is also a light setter but I get about a plum every foot which is many times better than Santa Rosa ever was for me.
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Reportedly Santa Rosa is a light setter Back East.
Might have something to do with greater soil fertility. Maybe spray a few times with Monopotassium Phosphate?
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My Weeping Santa Rosa is in its 5th leaf. I have had about 15 fruit this year and last, so not a heavy setter here at all.
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I don’t think weeping Santa Rosa is supposed to be a heavy setter anywhere.
Supposedly popularized by Raymond Burr of Perry Mason fame, btw.
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Honestly I haven’t run across anyone talking about the weeping variety. I bought it more for the form really, and after not putting on any new growth in the hot, dry hell that was last summer, this spring it has sent out 7-8 graceful, 5 foot long weepers.
Funnily enough, the new growth this year had leaves twice the size of the rest of the tree.
Eventually maybe it will begin to resemble the lovely nursery photos.
Maybe.
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Our biggest problem with Santa Rosa is the 300 chill hours. It and the Sweetheart Apricot tree both bloom a month too early. Worthless with our yearly “late frosts”.
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I planted a Santa Rosa and a Satsuma from Willis in the Spring of 2023, hoping the two would cross pollinate each other. The Satsuma didn’t survived but I since thought the Santa Rosa was self fertile I never replace the Satsuma. After reading this, it sounds like I need a 2nd plum or graft another variety on the SR.
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If I cut down this early blooming Santa Rosa and graft on a Stanley Prune plum, will the bloom then be the same as my other in-ground Stanley Prune trees?
Thanks for the reply. It totally puzzles and annoys me why nurseries push these unreliable varieties instead of good ones. Pay good money, nurture it with lots of work and your reward in years to come is a waste of time! I 'll have to check the location of the nursery I bought it from.
Santa Rosa is a Japanese plum. J plum is compatible to graft on to a European plum. However, I don’t think J plum and E plum are pollen compatible. They cannot cross pollinate.
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Some nurseries like TyTy or Willis, you are even sure if they send you a correct species of fruit tree, never mind a correct variety.
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My experience with Santa Rosa plum (growing it for about 30 years) brings me to the conclusion that it will produce a decent crop only if it experiences warm spring weather right after the flowers are pollinated and for an indeterminate period of time afterwards. During those 30 years I usually only got a few ripe plums each year, a half-dozen if I was lucky. The only two years that the tree produced a substantial crop we had an unusually cool and wet early spring that delayed blooming. Then, the weather suddenly turned warm and dry for the blooming period and mostly continued until the end of spring.
I assume that California springs warm up early and stay warm because they get good crops of Santa Rosa most of the time. I know that the weather east of the Rockies is quite variable during spring; so, the kind of weather that this variety likes would not occur very often.
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Yes Santa Rosa is indeed a heavy bearer in California, and as far as I can tell it’s self fertile. It’s not a particularly good plum in my opinion, but I just don’t like the sour skin.
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From your observation it would appear that temperature at the time of fruit set is critical for this variety or would it be the case for plums across the board?
Where are the plums that succeed in New England, for example, and which nurseries are propagating them?
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Santa Rosa has always been a reliable producer for me. Although it is self fruitful, you’ll get a much better fruit set, if you’ll match it with another plum such as AU Rubrum. I have a thread with pictures.
Santa Rosa does very well in the South.
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Check Fedco. Plums - Fedco Trees.
It is a reputable nursery in ME. They sell hardy plums for our region. However, our yo-yo temp will sometimes wipes out all fruit buds in the spring.
Japanese plums bloom earlier than Euro plums so the chance of them being affected by a drastic change of temp in the spring is higher.
If you want J plum, Shiro is really productive and bud hardier than other varieties. It needs cross pollination.
If you want E plums or hybrids, there are a bunch of them. You need to choose varieties that ripen by early Oct. Late varieties will not ripen well for us.
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I think that there are several plum varieties that behave like Santa Rosa, mainly Japanese plums I suspect; but my experience with different varieties is limited. However, some Japanese varieties aren’t as sensitive: Shiro and Beauty produce abundantly for me most years.
Regarding plums in New England, you need to check comments from growers in that region.
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I have ozark premier, elephant heart, and alderman here in NY blooming in that order. Alderman is the most reliable due to the yo-yo weather you mentioned (being the latest blooming).
Last frost I had this year was April 25 when all three were in bloom. All have a decent fruit set. Think I got lucky this year.
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